The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, went viral this week for posting a new product in its offering. It wasn’t a sign. It was not a structured product. This was not justice. It was… perfume.
“Crypto by Binance” has its own sound, but not in the flavor market. To be fair, the new fragrance, advertised as “Affordable Wealth” and sold in pop-up stores in Bahrain, purports to promote an “Academy” or training course and associated loans for women who want to learn more about cryptocurrencies.
“If only women knew more about cryptocurrencies, they would surely participate,” is the common hope among blockchain advocates.
But here’s the thing: Cryptocurrency is a multi-trillion dollar industry that has captured the attention of the mainstream media and some of the largest financial institutions in the world. To suggest that the paucity of women is due to their lack of knowledge is patronizing at this stage. Women are very aware that cryptocurrencies exist, and with today’s unprecedented number of offers from trusted companies, it has never been easier to get involved.
So, if the issue of women’s participation in “crypto” is not a function of education, then what is? As the kids say, it’s about emotions.
This atmosphere is why so many women are reluctant to get involved in the cryptocurrency industry, not because cryptocurrency is difficult to understand. This is not a question of education or money, but a question of culture. In other words, Binance, it’s not us – it’s you.
The crypto industry is a terrible place to spend time, mired in rhetoric that alienates polite people of all genders. According to my observations, there are simply more men than women who are willing to endure this. When women flock to the cryptocurrency space, they tend to do so in their pockets. Check out the World of Women Discord and curated guides to NFT sites like Object.com examples of positivity and female over-representation. They create islands but also accept active participants through active community management.
To attract more women into the industry, I would reject the myth that cryptocurrency is a tech arms race. This is wrong. Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that thrive or die not because of technical problems or engineering prowess, but because of how they succeed in online popularity contests. The illusion that the success of crypto projects is determined by technical merit disappeared with the first half-dozen Solana outages. Or maybe it was earlier – during the multi-year marketing campaign for the Ethereum merger, which was constantly delayed. Ultimately, these projects came out on top not because of technical triumph, but because they had a compelling narrative. In other words, it’s not about training people. It’s a matter of storytelling.
The best cryptocurrency stories contain a positive call to action. The origins of cryptocurrencies are primarily grassroots efforts to empower individuals. This is the same story that brought blockbuster success to Instagram, Weight Watchers and Etsy when it comes to creating female-dominated communities. Positivity, self-improvement and self-expression are the hallmarks of the most popular factions of the women’s network. This arc is completely compatible with the philosophy of cryptocurrencies. The origins of Bitcoin are all about a sense of self-determination and empowerment. To attract more women, we need to build on this rhetoric and develop narratives around it.
The most popular sites where women gather online have a completely different tone than “Crypto Twitter” or Crypto Reddit. Unsurprisingly, there is a big difference between the percentage of women who own cryptocurrencies in the US (~27%) and those who participate in online discourse (I estimate <5%).
If the problem of women’s participation in cryptocurrency was easy to solve, it would already be solved. The cryptocurrency industry could benefit from addressing gender inequality and representation. Creating a credible alternative to existing value transfer rails will not happen if its culture continues to alienate large swathes of the population. It will take some strong perfume to fix this stinking reality. Changing tone and language on a large scale is a more serious and difficult task.
Kathleen Breitman – co-founder Tezos. The views expressed in Fortune.com comments are solely the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs Luck.